R&R.
"Hey Shirakumo-sensei. You here?" Touya called out as he and Tenko entered the bar their former teacher ran, seeing the white haired man poke his head out from the back room with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.
"Hey guys," he said, exhaling a cloud of smoke from his lungs, and putting his cigarette out in his ashtray. "What's going on?"
"Not much. Just babysitting this little goober today," he said as he plopped Eri down onto one of the bar stools. "Chisaki said to have her fed and dressed before we drop her off at school."
"And you think just because you two are former students of mine, I'll feed whoever you drag along with you?"
"Are you?"
"Only if she's alright with just eating fruit," he said, going into the back to get Eri some breakfast as Tenko picked her up, and grabbed the bag of clothes from Touya so he could put her into her school uniform. "You guys want anything while I'm back here?"
"We're good," Tenko called as he leaned against the door to the bathroom while Eri got changed.
"Although we could use another sitter for later. We have to work late," Touya said.
"Can't you just keep her with your sister after school lets out?" Shirakumo asked as he came back out and set an apple down on the bar.
"Not really. If we leave her with Fuyumi anymore, the school's going to be forced to bring in social services. And I don't think her grandfather's going to be too happy if they start looking into his business transactions," he said as Tenko moved to the side and let Eri out of the bathroom when he heard her knock on the door.
"What kind of transactions?"
"Yakuza," the boys said in unison.
"Oh lovely," he grumbled, hearing the phone ring in the back room as Tenko sat Eri down at the bar, and dug through her bag for her comb while she ate her breakfast. "I should probably go get that. Don't do anything stupid."
"You should know us better than that," Touya called after him as he slipped something into his pocket, and grabbed Eri's comb from the bag.
"Did you just take of Shirakumo's business cards?" Tenko asked, seeing his friend press a finger to his lips to silence him.
"Don't tell him," he said as he brushed Eri's hair.
~Meanwhile~
"Hi, you've reached Himoko Shinso. I can't come to the phone right now, so leave a message, and I'll get back to you."
"Hey mom, it's me. Again," Hitoshi said into his phone as he sat on his couch. "Look, I know you're probably getting sick and tired of me calling you all the time while you and dad are away on work. But it's kind of been a few months since I last heard your voice from anything other than your voicemail, and uh...whatever money you or dad have been giving to Mr. Kyoko hasn't really been going through. He's gotten on my ass about the rent a few times now, and my job doesn't exactly pay me enough to pay him back. So if you can just give him a call, or maybe come home to try and fix this. That'd be great."
Hanging up on his mother, Hitoshi breathed out a sigh, and ran his hands up into his indigo colored hair; curling his fingers around the bluish-purple locks as he dug his nails into his scalp out of frustration, and leaned back on the couch. Moving his hands to his face, and pressing his palms to his tired eyes to distract from the fact that he had neglected to tell his mom that he had actually gotten evicted, and was now living in a storage unit just so he wasn't on the street before he was brought out of his thoughts by his phone alarm going off to remind him he had to get to school so he could take advantage of the locker room showers.
"Tomorrow will be better," he said to himself before he got up from the couch, and walked over to the old shower curtain that separated his makeshift living room from his 'bedroom'. Pushing the vinyl material to the side, and quickly stuffing a clean uniform and a towel into his duffle bag before he swapped out his generators, and lifted up the door to his unit to put the one he had just unplugged out back to charge. Only to run into Ojiro just as he was locking up the storage unit across from his.
"Shinso?"
"Yeah, hey Ojiro," he said, setting his generator down on the ground, and grabbing his bike from where he had it propped up against a box of his dad's clothes. "What are you doing here this early?"
"I keep my workout equipment here. Clears up space in my room, and saves me from having to go to the gym before classes," he said as Hitoshi locked his unit and put the key into his pocket. "Are you...living here while your parents are out of town?"
"No," Hitoshi snapped, busying himself with putting the generator into the basket on his bike so he wouldn't have to look at his classmate. "I'm just...making sure nothing got broken when the moving guys dropped it off."
"Then why do you have the solar generator?"
"Because we didn't have room for it at our new place. Now don't you have something better to do than get on my ass?"
"Not that the moment," Ojiro said. "Seriously though, how long have you been living out of there?"
"I don't have time for this," Hitoshi said as he turned away from his classmate to leave.
"Hitoshi, I'm being serious. I can help."
"Mashirao, I can assure you. I don't need anyone's help," he said as they walked out the back of the building to the loading docks where he promptly lifted his generator out of his bike, and hid it in a spot he knew no one else would see it while he was gone. "I do however, need you to keep your mouth shut about this. I don't want that pompous asshole Monoma hearing about this, and telling everyone I'm homeless."
"But you are homeless," Ojiro pointed out to him as he got on his bike.
"We're done here," he said, riding his bike down the loading ramp, and through the back gates of the lot.
"We're far from done with this, Shinso!" Ojiro called after him as he watched his classmate turn the corner on his bike, and disappear down the street.
R&R.
